A fraud involving **artificial intelligence** voice cloning and a fake **WhatsApp** message led to the transfer of 95 million euros from Fideuram, a private banking subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest banking institution. The incident, which dates back to February 2026, was reported by Reuters on September 25, 2026. According to sources close to the matter, the fraudsters impersonated Carlo Messina, the general director of Intesa Sanpaolo, and a senior associate of a prestigious Italian law firm, Paolo Nastasi, using AI to replicate the voice of the latter. The fake messages and calls prompted Paolo Molesini, then president of Fideuram, to authorize a series of transfers to foreign accounts, mainly in China and Hong Kong. The fraudsters reportedly used 11 forged documents, including a confidentiality agreement and a power of attorney, to add credibility to the request. Fideuram detected irregularities in the transfers and alerted authorities in several countries. Approximately 53 million euros were recovered through cooperation between Chinese, Portuguese, and Italian authorities, while the remaining 36 million euros are still unaccounted for. Some reports indicate the missing funds may have been converted into **cryptocurrencies** and passed through accounts in Malta, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, as well as a Canadian money transfer service and two **Bitcoin** wallets. The Milan prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the fraud, focusing on a foreign national, though his identity has not been disclosed. No Fideuram executives, including Paolo Molesini, are under suspicion. Molesini left the presidency of Fideuram in March 2026, citing personal reasons, though the bank did not provide further explanations for his departure. This incident is not isolated. Similar scams have targeted other individuals and organizations in Italy. In 2025, a report by Signicat noted a 2,137 percent increase in deepfake-related fraud attempts over three years, with 42 percent of fraud cases in seven European countries involving deepfakes. Financial institutions have been slow to implement AI-based fraud prevention tools, with only 22 percent having such measures in place. In 2020, a similar fraud in Hong Kong involved the cloning of a company executive's voice to steal 35 million dollars from a bank. In Italy, prominent individuals such as Massimo Moratti, the former owner of Inter Milan, have also been victims of similar scams, with Moratti transferring nearly one million euros to a foreign account before the funds were recovered. The use of AI voice cloning and deepfake technology in financial fraud has raised concerns beyond the banking sector. A 2024 study by Jumio found that 72 percent of consumers fear being deceived by deepfakes, with many expressing concerns about the influence of AI on elections and the erosion of trust in politicians and media. In response, over 400 experts, including academics, entertainment figures, and politicians, signed an open letter in 2024 titled "Disrupting the Deepfake Supply Chain," calling for stricter regulation of deepfake creation and criminalizing harmful AI-generated content.